Screw the "Golf Trip": Three Perfect Long Weekends (Where You Can Play a Little Golf)

We have endured duffer theme parks like Pinehurst and Bandon Dunes. And we're never going back. Our advice instead: Book a trip to the West Coast's premier food destination or the South's wildest party towns, and bring your clubs along

Listen, a famous golf resort with a golf-themed tavern and a golf-themed lodge packed with—you guessed it—golfers is cool if you're 65 years
old and blowing through your retirement money with your snowbird friends. Otherwise, no. What you want is to play a round with your buddies, tear up the town together, and wake up early to do it again. You want restaurants serving non-golfers, hotel lobbies packed with non-guests, and bars teeming with non-bros (i.e., beautiful women). All of which
means planning
a trip that leads with the city and still delivers on
the links. This is our guide to the three best itineraries for
a golf weekend
that's about a whole lot more than
just playing golf.

Where the
Nineteenth Hole Has Michelin StarsSan Francisco, California

The dinner scene at Flour + Water

Nice view: Hotel Vitale

As with everything in this town, the thrill
comes from proximity:
It's all about the
ease with which one Priuses from bay-windowed bungalow to a first tee framed by cypresses in less
time than it takes to finish a morning bun from Tartine Bakery. First stop is TPC
Harding Park, a maze of emerald acreage
just across a lake from the city's famed private course, The
Olympic Club. (No tourists allowed.) Luckily, Harding Park shares Olympic's
dip-diving contours, elevation surges, panoramic views, spongy greens, and salty breezes, making
it SF's top city-run course. You'll jam through your
morning round by early afternoon,
in time to down sea creatures at Swan Oyster Depot or burritos at La Taqueria.

Wake up the
next morning and hit hilly Presidio Golf
Course, built in 1895 and mostly played straight up or straight down—seldom will you find a flat lie
or a boring view.

Pre-round nourishment at Tartine Bakery

The primo photo op comes on the par-5 ninth hole, which
is downwind enough to give you a legit eagle opportunity. Whip out your phone, frame the rotunda of the Emanu-El temple behind the green,
and take the picture while you're still smiling—before you yank your 3-wood into the parking lot.

Afterward, venture from your downtown hotel (maybe the
airy, Zen-ish
Hotel Vitale or the Philippe Starck-designed Clift) to dinner at State Bird
Provisions, with
its signature fried quail and dim-sum-style seafood carts.
If you're feeling
pasta instead, nowhere's better
than Flour + Water, Thomas McNaughton's shrine to those
two ingredients. In either case, you'll want to wrap up
your evening in the Mission District.
We like Zeitgeist for
the cheap beers to help you forget that your flight home
leaves in six hours.